Bowen consulted on both games initially at reveal but is not employed by Spooky in any way. This was covered extensively in the HWN forum if you want to read about it.

Just got invoiced and paid up for #102.

it would be nice if someone from spooky would get back on here and provide some feedback to all of the questions and concerns raised.

charlie seems to have disappeared from this thread 4 months ago, luke 1-1/2 months ago and bug 31 days ago

Just get on the Halloween thread, Luke is there frequently. They can’t be on all the threads all of the time and it seems like that’s where they’ve landed. Possibly because it has the most activity.

Nope, it was a lying face emoji. I'm sitting here with my UMBSE deposit for sale the last two weeks without the slightest nibble after Bowen formally said that he had nothing to do with this game.

Unfortunately you can get CEs cheaper than 1500. Seems for CE people can get nibbles at 1300 which is crazy. Hoping by the time my SE comes things are sorted out

just because halloween is being built in a 2.5 : 1 ratio shouldn't excuse them from supporting the buyers of ultraman and not answering questions and/or addressing concerns

ps
this thread has 53 pages, the halloween thread has 32. not sure how that translates into halloween having the "most" activity

More current activity talking about the game and code in the Halloween thread because the code (buggy and incomplete as it is) seems to be much further along. This thread is basically talking about the fact that the code seems to be a mess and very bare-bones. Not much to promote here if you're Spooky. But that does feed the feeling of abandonment and dive in prices for places in line. I get that.

This ^^^

I don't get it, why would Spooky abandon Ultraman owners?

That only happens a few weeks before and a few weeks after sales. Then the communication cools down and it’s quiet.

Maybe I am just naive, but I remain optimistic that ultraman will get the Halloween style feature update + bug fix rolled together soon. (Whereas Halloween will get just the bug fix).

Of course it will.

Have no fear - everything will be fine.

Coding (and testing) takes a lot of time. Remember how long it took Stern to pump out code for a number of their games to make them “not suck”.

Be patient - it’ll all be fine in the end.

rd

Remember that these are essentially the same game with asset swaps. Whatever they do to Ween will all come to Ultraman. So whatever they’re talking about in the Ween thread applies here, too.

The code comparison to Stern ended a few years ago. At 100+’games being delivered by end of year we should begin seeing progress very soon.

Stranger Things? That was pretty basic.

How was Mando? I don’t follow it.

Led Zeppelin was also basic from memory?

Everyone is spoiled by Elwins games these days - they are pretty complete out of the box.

Which is how they all should be, to be fair.

But everyone is pumping them out so fast these days … takes a while for the code to catch up.

rd

Stern isn’t perfect but they put a team in place after BM66 - titles now are further along out of box and operating fine on location.
As a result, the code drops happen much more frequently across multiple titles today.

Oh yeah, they’ve got way more coders on staff now. They’re way better than they used to be.

Us guys who have been around a while have a long memory.

rd

This. The most recent code for Halloween had some bugs. I have no problem letting them clean that up. Even in it's current state the most recent Ultraman code has 6-single ball modes plus 3-multiball modes. On top of that you have the Spacium collection. That needs some work, but the backbone is in place. The game is coming along.

Based on the Halloween updates we should be getting some health bars to track battle progress.

There are three different Halloween threads and the hype thread alone is 77 pages. UM will get its proper updates. Spooky did just hire a second programmer. Like I said earlier, they can’t be in every single thread answering every single question. Especially if you’d like them to complete anything in a timely fashion. It’s not like Spooky employs PR people to comb these threads and put out fires. They know that these two titles will make or break the company. They will get it done, and done right.

The negativity in here is ridiculous. Spooky clearly takes a while to iron out final code for their games (TNA aside obviously). Ultraman started hitting locations/homes about 2mo. ago.
All this talk of panic selling spots and complaints of incomplete code seems silly.
Go ahead and sell your game. Regret it a year later when you are playing it at someone else's house.
I may keep mine long term, I may sell mine down the road, but whatever I choose it won't be based on early code and pissy collectors complaints about designer interaction.
I don't see the Stern guys in the Stern threads keeping us up to date on code development.
People have been spoiled by the time while Spooky was a small boutique shop and had the time to talk to each customer individually.

I owned a FGY for many years and have a Shrek now. Those games came from a simpler time, the pre-LE period where incandescent bulbs and orange DMD screens ruled the day. There were a couple games with fabulous deep rules then sure (LOTR and TSPP) but pinball was super cold and today’s coding standards were still far away.

This model Spooky is using with this duel release is very interesting and worked incredibly well to get sales. Now that they have the sales how can they keep two sets of customers happy on code?

They have an entirely new team of very young people on these two games. The pressure on them has to be enormous. Could you imagine being expected to do light shows, music and sound effects at the truly elite Lionman level of Scott Danesi? Do coding as superb as Eric? Animations as well as the gentleman that animated ACNC? Design rule sets that are fun as well as Bowen? These are giant shoes to fill at Spooky and they need to do it for two games at the same time…and 1,750 customers are eager for it to be done perfectly right away…me included.

I think this task is going to be incredibly challenging. The two assets for the two games are just so different from one another that the game’s rule sets need to be entirely different so the content can be used differently in a way that suits the brevity of content for Halloween and enormity of content for Ultraman…if Spooky tries to do both with same rule architecture both may ultimately feel underwhelming and the young talent they are using will have an uphill battle. The code sets must diverge.

Agreed

whenever i read negative posts I remind myself that this is a passion project for the Emery family and I know this game will get there! 107 invoice received

SpookyLuke How many UMs are you guys building per week?

Not really. That time you reference is the time period that resulted in the development of the goodwill that caused almost everyone in here to jump in on these games. We are not spoiled; we are just developed Spooky customers buying our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th Spooky title, respectively. If Spooky can no longer communicate with us that means the level of service we bought in to simply is no longer is there. So be it, I understand entities grow and change with that growth and that it is easier to accommodate with 150 people personally than 1,750 people, but name calling people who are accustomed to Spooky communicating with them when suddenly Spooky is not communicating with them is not productive.

As frankmac said, we are just concerned. With the change in team members Spooky has had to this younger and unproven talent with the coding team combined with Bowen not being involved there are some indicators here causing us alarm.

No one is complaining about the designer. The layout of this machine is superb (as is the artwork). The concerns are with both the coder (not just the rules but the light show and music also) and having our Ultraman theme with its 400 hours of totally accessible source material being architecturally tied to a totally different game that spooky has seven and half minutes of material from… How can our Ultraman be all it can be while being tied to (and without question currently playing second fiddle to) something that has such limited source material?

You don’t see this right now because Stern has been doing a fabulous job with code recently. This has not always been the case, note the “where is the code Gary?” movement of several years ago. Go check the Ghostbusters or X-Men threads historically and you will see these same types of posts. The difference is, even at their peak of failing to keep up with code needs, Stern still had experienced coders like Lyman who were superb at designing rule sets that were fun to play…Stern fought through their dark code days and the backs of people like Lyman Sheets. Spooky just a few months ago was loaded with talent that knew how to make games fun and blow you away with lights and sounds. But where is Scott Danesi? Where is Erik? Where is Bowen?

TNA is an absolute masterpiece. R&M is an absolute masterpiece. AMH has superb code. ACNC is incredibly fun to play with excellent callouts that build excitement and well integrated graphics. Is Spooky committed to making Ultraman as good as R&M in the code department? Will it have a light show that rivals R&M? Can it’s music ever possibly hope to surpass TNA? Will it’s graphics be as great as ACNC?

I sold my BM66 to fund my Ultraman CE and make room for it, I just want to feel like a made good decision with that move. That is basically how everyone feels.

As I mentioned in the prior post, I do not envy the challenging position the young team at Spooky in charge of this game are in right now. I desperately wish them success as I want to love my Ultraman. I’m not running out to sell my UM and I have confidence they will ultimately deliver a great product - however, at some juncture hearing from Charlie or their team on what exactly their medium term and long term plans are for the Ultraman code and whether they are as committed to Ultraman specifically as they were to R&M would certainly be reassuring.

Concern should never be mistaken or denounced as negativity.

Hey All! I just wanted to reassure you guys that we have definitely not abandoned UM! I won't give a specific timeframe, but we will be pushing out another UM update soon. Hang in there! We are alternating between HWN and UM, so don't worry if you don't see updates for each one come out at the same time. Further down the line, we may even see some divergence between the HWN and UM code, but we're still relatively early in development to set anything in stone.

That clears a lot of things up.
Thanks and appreciate the input.

2.0 code for both machines (because Spooky is writing two) would be a great feature. Should a deviation of game play happen. Easy enough to change the licensing assets after the code is complete.

There is so much to argue here but just not worth it. I'm not writing a novel to counter point your comment. Agree to disagree

I'm wondering why I didn't get my invoice ...I'm 96 I did get the email to chose butter or not .

I’m 95, didn’t get my invoice yet either. Just the first email. I think we will get it in the next week or two.

Odd

My distros numbers went from 101-115 so im guessing that’s why, different distro.

They also asked for your shipping information. Once they have the shipping rates, I assume you will get the final invoice. I'm #93 but assumed my invoice might take a little bit longer because of the brokerage to Canada.

Edit: purchased directly from Spooky.
It makes sense that a bill would arrive sooner from distributors. Once the game is on the line they already know exactly how much the cost is to the customer

Yea its cool I am in no rush was just curious.

Left UKR on for the day and found it locked up, nothing on the screen, no lights moving, power cycle revived it

E99606E7-A7FD-41CF-BEC5-07A85BD4244D (resized).jpeg

If left on for over 24 hours you’ll have to restart to regain audio and gameplay. I’ve had the issue for a few weeks. The game will start but not feed a ball until a power reset.

Just a word of encouragement. Fawzma is coding UM and Halloween. He’s coded RZ, Dominos, Jetsons, and ACNC. Bug is learning/helping with some of the code. Bug is writing the rules and I’m sure folks like Charlie, Ben, Danesi, Erik, Bowen, and many other of the ”friends of Spooky” are willing to give uncredited advice if asked. All Spooky games have started off slow code-wise with several spots sold for less early on. Then 1–2 years later they increased in value once production was over and code completed. Heck, people seem to forget that TNA was slow to sell and many people felt a single level game would never sell or hold value. I’m excited to take this ride. Given the choice between Godzilla that I can play at any arcade made by a big manufacturer or a limited Ultraman with unique triple upper player field layout made with individual care by a family business in Benton, I’ll take UM. Folks seem to forget they bought from a boutique pinball company. It’s not going to be made, feel, play, or be coded like a Stern. And that’s a good thing. Hang in there and stay positive folks!

Thanks, still positive and long on the Spooky train.
Boutique or not, as a consumer I do expect overall quality to keep improving each time out.
R&M and ACNC were big steps forward.
As they grow rooting for Spooky to crush each new challenge!

Beta Capsules (and Michael's knife) are in stock and ready to ship

Screenshot_20211122-121935_Facebook (resized).jpg

Hey everyone. We're sorry for the absence in this thread lately.

We will be pushing out a new UM and HWN code update very soon here. Just trying to make sure it can be the most stable version of code yet so everyone can enjoy the games (almost) bug free. The most recent Halloween update I feel finally got the same amount of content into the game as Ultraman started with. But it came with more code bugs than I'd like to admit. We wanted to make sure Ultraman didn't also get those unnecessary bugs in its next update. We're making sure both games are caught up to each other in rules and bug fixes before it launches VERY SOON.

Ultraman will not be forgotten or abandoned, and will eventually separate from HWN in code and rules. Our programmer does have the work load of 2 games so keeping the rules similar for as long as we can really helps him a ton. But I would love to see UM separate eventually as there's a lot more content to play with there!

Hey guys sorry I missed some stuff. Felt like this was going real slow for awhile and then I didn't check for a bit and BOOM thread exploded. I'll do better checking up here. We were just focused on the major halloween update for the month of October. Looking to implement all the fancy stuff to UM now ASAP. Didn't mean to upset anyone.

❤

Solid.

I trust someone way more sending a black heart rather than a red heart 100% of the time.

Seriously.

Not that there was any lack of trust or love here. Ultraman is awesome period. And this game is just going to get more awesome. No doubts.

Is the next update making the video full screen and getting rid of that surround that shrinks the video to a window within the screen? That's the single biggest change Ultraman needs ASAP.

I'll have to ask! I think there is a technical reason for that. I want to say that's the shape it was originally displayed but I will have to check with the smarter than me people.